MTel Round 9 - Carlsen Leads

Magnus Carlsen (pictured) is the sole leader going into the final round at the 2009 Mtel tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria.  He dispatched Wang Yue in fine style in round 9 to claim a half point lead ahead of Shirov.

Also tied with Shirov, half a point behind Carlsen, is the home favourite, and no.1 ranked player in the world, Topalov.

Topalov beat Ivanchuk to pile on the misery for the Ukrainian, who is having a terrible tournament. Ivanchuk is now on -5 and his live rating has slipped below so 2700, so he no longer appears on the live ratings list.

In the final round, Shirov has white against Carlsen, Topalov has black against Yue, and Ivanchuk has white against Dominguez. Final round games start on 25 May at 3pm local time (one hour earlier than the other rounds).

Live coverage of the games is available at the official site.

If Topalov can beat Yue and Carlsen only draws with Shirov, then Topalov wins the title because the first tie-break is the number of wins.